NASET News Alert

What Goes Wrong in the Brain when Someone Can't Spell

February 10, 2016

By studying stroke victims who have lost the ability to spell, researchers have pinpointed the parts of the brain that control how we write words. In the latest issue of the journal Brain, Johns Hopkins University neuroscientists link basic spelling difficulties for the first time with damage to seemingly unrelated regions of the brain, shedding new light on the mechanics of language and memory. "When something goes wrong with spelling, it's not one thing that always happens -- different things can happen and they come from different breakdowns in the brain's machinery," said lead author Brenda Rapp, a professor in the Department of Cognitive Sciences. "Depending on what part breaks, you'll have different symptoms." Read More